While most critics have been posting their 10 Worst Films of 2018, I want to try something a little different. I ended up skipping a lot of the truly awful fare in theaters, so you won’t see stinkers like A Wrinkle in Time or Fifty Shades Freed on this list. Rather, these are the ten films that I went into expecting a solid film but left thoroughly dissatisfied. Here are the Top 10 Most Disappointing Films of 2018!
It’s that time where we get to look back at the best of the best in cinema from the past year! 2018 had a lot of excellent offerings, and it was difficult to parse the list down, but I am excited to share my best of the best with you all. Here are the Top 10 Movies of 2018!
I saw a lot of movies in 2018…82 to be precise. Part of that is thanks to services like MoviePass, but mostly it was a desire to fully commit to the year and determine for myself what makes each of the year’s best movies tick. My journey of discovering what makes a great film meant I had to sit through a lot of mediocre fare, but you can learn just as much from the movies you don’t like as the ones you do. And on occasion, a film I went into expecting to hate ended up being among my favorites of the year (and some appear on this list!). With that being said, I could not narrow down my list to just ten because so many great movies have lingered in my memory that I have to talk about. So enjoy Part 1 of my Top 20 Films of 2018!
Black Mirror: Bandersnatch (2018) is a build-your-own-adventure sci-fi flick from Netflix, a spiritual successor to the highly-successful anthology series. It stars Fionn Whitehead (of Dunkirk fame) as a young programmer tasked with adapting a famous and lengthy sci-fi novel into a video game, which proves a more difficult assignment than advertised. It’s a unique and exciting format, allowing “players” (viewers) to choose how the story plays out for themselves. Is it just a gimmick? Or does the conceit work?
If Beale Street Could Talk (2018) is the much-anticipated new release from Barry Jenkins, the writer-director of 2016’s Oscar-winning Moonlight. Beale Street is something of a passion project of his; he temporarily set it aside to make Moonlight and has now fully realized the project on the big screen. It stars Kiki Layne and Stephan James as star-crossed lovers “Tish” and “Fonny” who face hardship as Fonny is falsely arrested for rape and Tish becomes pregnant with their child.
Continue reading ““If Beale Street Could Talk” Film Review & Analysis”
Welcome back to another belated review round-up, where I catch up on some older releases that I didn’t get around to seeing in theaters the first time! Today I’m looking back at a few contenders in major Oscar categories that I missed out on the first time. Some are smaller films that came out of left field to nab a key nomination, while others are simply films that didn’t interest me enough the first time to warrant a trip to the cinema. Enjoy my thoughts on The Wife, Bohemian Rhapsody, and Support the Girls!
Continue reading “Belated Film Review Round-Up #5: Awards Season Catch-Up Edition”
Museo (2018) is a Mexican heist thriller film from writer-director Alonso Ruizpalacios. It stars Gael Garcia Bernal in a (mostly) true story about the infamous 1985 robbery of the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City. It has drawn rave reviews and earned multiple accolades, including a Best Screenplay award at this year’s Berlin Film Festival. What sets this heist film apart?
Vice (2018) is the follow-up to 2015’s The Big Short from writer-director Adam McKay. It stars an ensemble cast including Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Sam Rockwell, and Steve Carell in a biopic about the tumultuous life and vice-presidency of Dick Cheney. McKay won the Oscar for penning his adaptation of an excellent Michael Lewis book about the principals behind the ’07/’08 financial collapse, but this is an original script based on (mostly) true events. Can he work similar magic here without a solid foundation to prop him up?
Mary Poppins Returns (2018) is the long-awaited sequel to the original 1964 film starring the titular character. Emily Blunt takes over the lead role from Julie Andrews, with Lin-Manuel Miranda supporting as another beloved Cockney lamplighter. As the title suggests, the film follows Mary as she comes back to the family she once left when the kids from the first film are all grown up. Is it worthy of its predecessor, and will it have legs going into Oscar season?
Cold War (2018) is a Polish romance-drama from filmmaker Pawel Pawlikowski, a recent winner of the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film for 2013’s Ida. It tells the story of a young singer and an older music director who meet and fall in love in 1950’s Europe. It has drawn rave reviews and made several Top 10 lists for 2018 from reputed American publications, which piqued my interest. Why is this little black-and-white Polish number winning over international audiences?
Scriptophile 